FROST (Fridge Recording Over Set Time)

Do you have a fridge in your home? Are you aged over 18 and live in Scotland? Do you want to be involved in citizen science research and improve food safety standards for people like you? If so, you might want to take part in our research project FROST!

We are running a citizen science trial to check the temperature ranges of fridges in Scotland. Citizen science puts the public at the heart of the research process by actively involving them in collecting and analysing data for a research project. Citizen science provides an opportunity to generate important data which will shape our future food safety messaging and resources.  By participating, you will be directly contributing to scientific evidence and research.

The trial is simple – all we need you to do is store two temperature loggers in your fridge for two weeks, then send them back to us in the prepaid return envelope. 

The requirements for taking part are: 
•    you must be aged over 18 years old 
•    you must be currently living in Scotland
•    you must have a food fridge in the home 

If interested in taking part, here's what you need to do:

1. Sign up using the form below and fill in your details to receive your trial pack. 
2. Answer a few questions about you, your household and your fridge. This will help us analyse the data to see how different types of fridges or household sizes compare. This should only take five minutes to complete. 
3. Once complete, we will send you an email confirming that we have received your request for a trial pack. 
4. We will send you a trial pack containing the two temperature loggers (as shown in the picture above) and trial instructions.
5. Once received, all you need to do is put your two temperature loggers in your fridge for two weeks, storing one on the top shelf and one on the bottom shelf and record the date that the trial started.
6. After two weeks, return the temperature loggers to us in the provided prepaid envelope. 
7. If requested, we will send you an email of your results once they are ready. 

As an optional step, you can also email a photo of the inside of your fridge as part of the trial. We would ask for a photo of your fridge as it is (there’s no need to tidy it up for the photo!) and all photos will be completely anonymised for data analysis, so they won’t be linked back to you or your household. We will use these photos to form an idea of the different types of food products that are being stored on the different shelves of fridges across Scotland, which will help inform our consumer messaging. The submission of a photo is not a mandatory requirement to take part in the trial.

Read the FROST privacy notice.